said he could not take them down he was so occupied. After a long time
the girls saw Leux pass by again, and they begged him to take them
down from the tree. This time Leux replied that he would take them
down if one of them would consent to become his wife. To this they
agreed.

Now these girls had their hair tied with long shreds of eelskins. They
took off these strings, which bound their hair behind, and securely
tied them in hard knots on the top branches of the tree upon which
they were. Leux climbed the tree and brought the girls down safe and
sound. He then demanded one of them for his wife.[25]

[Footnote 25: It would be more in accord with the Indian words to say
"have one of them" instead of "have one of them for a wife."]

But the girls said, "First, it is necessary for you to untie and bring
down our hair bands for us." Leux climbed the tree to get the eelskin
hair bands, but they had tied them so securely that it took him a long
time to loosen the knots. When he came down the girls had built a
large and beautiful wigwam. They then made Leux blind[26] [how, the
narrator did not know].

[Footnote 26: The wigwam may have been so dark that he could not see
anything, or perhaps he was blinded by his admiration for the girls.]

Then the maidens call out to him, and now one and now the other
invites him to come to her. As he follows their voices one of them
leads him to fall into the water, and the other makes him stumble on
porcupine quills. Exhausted, Leux then goes to sleep, wearied out with
his exertions, but when he awoke the maidens had vanished.